Protecting the euro against counterfeiting
European Commission, Directorate-General Justice and Consumers
November 2018
Question
How do you make sure the EU has the right laws in place to prevent currency counterfeiting?
Answer
Employ our lawyers to check that all elements of EU law to protect the euro have been included properly in national legislation.
19 EU countries use the euro as a common currency. Like many currencies, it falls victim to counterfeiting which costs businesses and citizens alike as the value of fake coins and notes is not always recovered. 301,000 counterfeit euro banknotes alone were withdrawn from circulation in the first half of 2018.
The EU adopted a directive to protect the euro and other currencies against criminal counterfeiting. Our legal team was tasked with checking that the legislation each EU country had put in place included all elements of the law in the correct way.
Our international lawyers produced individual compliance documents for 25 countries and an overall report for the EU as a whole. The assessments had to be thorough and accurate as the Commission uses these conclusions as a starting point for their decision to take legal action, or not, against countries whose legislation is found to be wanting.
